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Name
Mona
-
Profession
Question
How can the Turkish Parliament refuse your position while you were elected? Does it say in the constitution that you cannot wear hijab in the Parliament?
Answer
No, absolutely not. Neither in the constitution not by law of the parliament prevents a woman with a head scarf to be in the parliament. Nevertheless Turkey is not a fully established democracy where there exists rule of law; it is a near democracy, therefore it has problems to overcome and the prevention of women with headscarf from public sphere or realm is one of the problematic areas. So, actually the treatment that I have to endure was not in the context of legality.
Name
Shafiq
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Profession
Question
How do you view the western secularism in view of the hijab laws?
Answer
I think secularism has to be evaluated within the context of a particular country. When I say secularism in the United States, it means something different from secularism in France or Turkey. In my mind the aftermath western model of secularism intended the separation between religion and state, so that both can flourish independently. However, when you look at secular model in France, for instance, you see that secularism means state control over religion; in a way it means state-regulated religion. In the case of Turkey, on the other hand, secularism means state “owned” religion.
Name
S.
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Profession
Question
Masha'Allah sister you have been a good example of committed sisters struggling for good cause. I hope to get some advice on Muslim sisters get more involved in politics and do you have some suggestions for us.
Answer
I believe that anyone of us has to follow his or her passion. I found my area of struggle, my context of passion, to be in politics. Nevertheless politics in the East or in the West is a male-dominated profession. It is not easy to survive in politics. Therefore, I would suggest that Muslim women be more involved in political action at times of great difficulty where we see a lot of prejudices and misconceptions about Islam, Muslim women in Particular, her treatment in Muslim society to be more specific. We need to be a part of the political machinery to respond and to eliminate the misconceptions concerning ourselves and our religion.
At the same time we have to take another set of responsibilities to ameliorate the status of Muslim women vis-à-vis today’s Muslim world. It is a reality that Muslim women do suffer around the world because we as an Ummah have diverted from the way we are supposed to be, from where we were told to be at fourteen hundred years ago. So there is a dichotomy between the ideal position of Muslim women in a Muslim society and the plight of the Muslim women today.
Name
mohamad zaki
- Malaysia
Profession
student
Question
as far as i concerned, muslim women in the west pushed their efforts to the utmost to defence their right wearing hijab. some cases the luck back them but in some cases they failed. since the kidnapped of two france journalists (so many bad things happened these days), i seen that the efforts stucked and they were in bewilderment, in dilemma either to support what so-called ''islamic army of iraq'' or pro-hijab campaign because i noticed (by reading) that some muslim girls had to stick out their hijab to attend the class. and some scholars in the west also urged the girls keep attending the school even without hijab.
Answer
Well, defending hijab in legal terms must not be mixed up with acts of aggression. What we have seen in Iraq when two French journalists were kidnapped made our case of defending the hijab in the western society more difficult. One cannot legitimize acts of violence or aggression in pursuit of legitimate other rights like the right to express your religious values. Therefore, I condemn actions that are undertaken in illegitimate forms to support Muslim women because this puts us in a quandary.
Name
Bahja
- Australia
Profession
student
Question
Are these anti-hijab rules in the west a sign of the hatred these countries hide for Muslims or they are based on secularist notions. Do you think Muslims' isolation from engaging in the mainstream society could be a reason too?
Answer
Yes and no, there is a prejudice against Islam especially during the last three years. However, I think the problem is two folds. Muslims failed to open themselves up and adapt themselves to expeditiously shrinking global world, therefore they stayed for quite a long time in a closed box, if you will. They isolated themselves and they did not do their part in bridging the gabs with the rest of the world. On the other hand, the west failed to understand the Muslim world, sometimes willingly, sometimes inadvertently, the west fell on deaf ears as far as the sufferings of the Muslim people under Muslim dictators and overtime the dichotomy between greater and greater.
Name
Jameel
- Nigeria
Profession
Engineering/Da'awah
Question
Why do the West hate the culture of Hijab? Is it that they hate Islam, are Islamaphobic, or that they hate decency? Why also do they promote nakedness and nudity?
Answer
The west fails to understand the meaning of hijab for Muslim women. All the west sees the empirical evidence concerning Muslim women with respect to domestic violence, honor killings, first marriages, and the like. So what they west actually sees is that Muslim women is being oppressed, what the west sees is that Muslim women are not free. And I believe this is true, we cannot deny all what is going on in the Muslim world with respect to women treatment in general.
So long as we do not have Muslim women such as Khadija (may Allah be pleased with her), the wife of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet, and many others who were both Muslim women in their identity and also “professional” women in their societies in twenty first century, we will not be able to explain ourselves to the world and make them understand that hijab actually liberates us. As long as the west only sees women with hijab enduring impediments in their personal, professional, social, economical growth, they will see that Muslim women are oppressed. We, Muslim women, have to change the position we have in our Muslim communities in order to change the perception of Muslim women in the western mind.
Name
Nefail
-
Profession
Question
Es-selamu alejkum. Wishing you great success in University and politics, my questions is: Do you face any problems working at the University veiled and how does the University society treat you?
Answer
No, I don’t face any difficulty whatsoever. It is interesting and actually and quiet ironical that that while I cannot pursue my profession in my own Muslim country, I can do that in a non-Muslim context.
Name
Naima
- Pakistan
Profession
Question
Do you really think all this effort of trying to prevent an implementation of ban on hijab is going to be fruitful? There were so many protests against the French ban of hijab but nothing could be done to prevent our sisters from that.
Hopefully, Allah rewards our efforts soon enough. Ameen.
Answer
I agree. We are liable for what we are capable of. That is to say we have to do our best in promoting the right and forbidding what is bad, nevertheless the victory and the help are from Allah the Almighty. What we have to do is to stand firm and not compromise. Again, I do not perceive the French case to be very hopeless for there is an option of sending our children to private Muslim schools. Muslim must pursue that option. The situation in Turkey, on the other hand, is drastic for even the private schools are considered to be state regulated schools. Therefore, a girl cannot wear hijab even in a private setting.
Name
Jameel M.D.
- Nigeria
Profession
Engineering/Da'awah
Question
From your answer to my previous question, we understand that freedom is relative and not absolute. It is true that majority of Muslim women live under oppression, but the western woman is more in bondage since she is only an object of 'entertainment'. For the Muslim woman, good education would liberate her and put her on the path of models you mentioned. Is there some other way to hasten this liberation process, because we are fast running out of time to make the West understand Islam as a woman's complete living?
Answer
The perception of the western women as objects in the western world does not legitimize the suffering of the Muslim women in the Muslim world. These are two separate things. It is true that we are running out of time, however, what we are facing today is an accumulation over centuries. We cannot anticipate change over night. Before we explain ourselves to the world as Muslim women, our values, where we come from, to the rest of the world, we have to explain ourselves within our Muslim world. If there cannot be a change within, we cannot expect change without.
Name
Manal
-
Profession
Question
You said there is an option for Muslims to send their children to private Islamic school, What if you are in an area where no Islamic school is available?
Answer
This is exactly my point. Muslims have to focus on establishing private educational institutions. But pragmatic answer would be to move to places where Islamic schools are available. Let me give you an example from Turkey. We have around one thousand students who moved from Turkey to Europe, to Austria and Germany in Particular, to pursue their medical degrees because of the ban on hijab. We have a great number of young women who came to Canada to have an education, too. So my point is we have to be ready to sacrifice and struggle for what is important to us, which is our hijab. Hijab is not optional in Islam and gaining knowledge is not optional either.
Name
Reda
-
Profession
Question
What is your advice to the Muslim sisters in France? How should they deal with the anti-hijab rules?
Answer
First of all we have to raise the support of people both in the Muslim and non-Muslim world, who perceive hijab as a “right” rather than an obligation. Without getting the support of women’s organizations, human rights organizations, institutions dedicated to civil liberties, we may not be able to change things in France.
It is a must for Muslim girls to have an education, and also to it is a must for them not to compromise on their hijab. So, I suggest that Muslims in France, while they are pressuring their government at every facet of the society as their democratic right, they must send their children to private Muslim schools. It is actually an opportunity that they need to wield that the French government is funding religious schools in France. I acknowledge that there might be some practical impediments in establishing good quality Islamic school education, but I find it to be paramount for French Muslims to focus on private education of their children and establish Islamic schools and assert themselves to the French society as “French” rather than immigrant Muslims.
Name
Madina
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Profession
Question
If you were kicked out of the Turkish Parliament with no legal justification, why don’t you sue the government?
Answer
I am suing the government. I have a case before the European Court of Human Rights. I do not know how justly the court will deal with my case, but I am taking every step in legality demanding my rights.
Name
Khadija
- United States
Profession
Question
What would say to the Muslims sisters who gave in to the laws and took off their hijab?
Answer
Well, I believe that none of us should compromise over our hijab.
Name
Editor
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Profession
Answer
Finally, we would like to thank sister Merve Kavakci for speaking to Islamonline viewers today. We also thank all those who participated in this dialogue, and we apologize for not being able to accommodate all the questions within the time allocated to this session. We remind our readers to join us in the upcoming sessions.
